Turtle tales

Honors College writing class promotes environmental advocacy

What do you get when you combine a passion for the environment and a desire to learn?
An Honors College English class where students study renowned British and American
writers and work with a nonprofit to protect species of turtles that are endangered
or extinct in the wild.

“I wanted students to learn about how they could use their writing and communications
skills to do good things for the environment and for other causes they care about,”
said Paula Feldman, who holds the C. Wallace Martin Chair in English. “My students
blew me away with their environmental advocacy project, and I’m so proud of all they
accomplished and learned in this class.”

Honors students learned about protecting natural habitats for turtles through a service-learning
project in Paula Feldman's nature writing course.

The 17 students studied authors such as Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau and Charles
Darwin who wrote about the environment. They also visited the Turtle Survival Center
in rural South Carolina and adopted its cause as the advocacy project. The center
is part of the Turtle Survival Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming
a passion for turtles into effective conservation action through a global network
of living collections and recovery programs.

Isabella Minson, a sophomore honors student, was enthusiastic about the advocacy outreach
effort.

The class divided into teams to make the project come to life: an “Adopt-a-Turtle”
fundraiser team, a social media campaign team, a history team and a silent auction
team. For one month the teams worked hand-in-hand on the turtle advocacy project.

By the end of the semester, the class created a three-month social media plan, developed
a written history of the center and its founder, designed an “Adopt-a-Turtle” campaign
and held a silent auction and percentage night at a local restaurant that raised $500
in donations for the Turtle Survival Alliance.

“I am so proud of what we accomplished. I'd never thought I could raise so much money
for an organization in such a short period of time,” says Minson, a Charleston native
who grew up on the Cape Roman Wildlife Refuge. “My parents always have emphasized being
kind to the environment because that is what sustains us and makes our home so beautiful,
and this class was an amazing opportunity to make a difference.”

Feldman’s class is example of the unique courses that have helped earn the South Carolina
Honors College the distinction of being among the best in the nation. Honors College
students interested in taking Feldman’s SCHC 354 Proseminar in Nature Writing can
email her at feldmanp@mailbox.sc.edu.

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